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THE KIRTAN RABBI &8212; Rabbi Andrew Hahn &8212; has been involved in music and song his entire life. His family was very musical and loved to sing together – so much so that friends jokingly called them the “Hahn-Trap” family. To this day, Reb Drew enjoys singing Hebrew niggunim (wordless melodies), zemirot (songs) and rounds with the next generation, his nieces and nephews. As much as he loves facilitating public kirtans and synagogue prayer with music, his favorite venue remains, and will always remain, the Shabbat table.

Since becoming a rabbi, Reb Drew has taken Abraham Joshua Heschel's saying as his professional motto: First we sing, then we believe! He believes that God is discovered in what we do together – and, often, especially in what we do together to sound the inner landscape musically. Reb Drew eschews singing as performance. Instead it is more about chant, an internal intonation directed outwards. His main goal in facilitating Hebrew Kirtan is to find ways to get the participants to let go and release themselves into the Group Voice. Leader and “audience” disappear into one another, no longer knowing who is who, so that the listeners are perhaps the angels on high and, so to speak, God Godself.

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR (Leviticus 19:18)
adapted from Gabriel Meyer Halevi


Har-eini m'ka-beil A-lai
Et Mi-tzvat ha-bo-rei
Ve-a-hav-ta l'rei-a-cha ka-mo-cha...
L'rei-a-cha ka-mo-cha


I am present to receive the demand of the Creator:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself...
Your neighbor as yourself!



Featuring:

Rabbi Andrew Hahn :: vocal calls; harmonium
Morah Shoshana Jedwab :: percussion
Ariel Rosen & Josh Wotman :: vocal response
Taylor Bergren Chrisman :: bass guitar
Rima Fand :: viola
Chorus Vocalists :: Emily Stern, Miriam Rubin, Davey Rosen, Doron Avizov, Noah Baumwoll, Yoni Stadlin, Yosef Gold

Produced & Conducted by Avi Fox-Rosen